Behind the Mask
by Kenjiro Minami
Summary: She was strange, always wearing the mask and crying over the fires of camp. But when Gadreel comes along, everything changes for both him and her.


No one could understand why she always wore the mask. The white one, covering half of her face. What people could see of her face was beautiful and elegant. Smooth and well formed, with high cheek bones and eyes as green as the forest. Her hair was as red as the setting sun after a long summer day. Long, slightly curly. She didn't have any freckles, though. But she was pretty.

Rarely did she talk, though, unless someone talked to her, first. She would always cry alone, at the edge of the fire region of Camp Phoenix. She'd stare into the fires, tears only escaping the eye on the side without the mask on it. No one knew why she cried there, but she did, and she wouldn't stop until someone talked to her.

There had only been one who had been able to get her to stop crying for longer than just a few moments, longer than when he had left to go sleep in his cabin for the night, leaving a smile on the girls face as she waited for the next day with the boy to come. Gadreel Samuel Black, a son of Ares, one of the least expected to be able to get the girl with the mask to stop crying.

But he was able to, and it puzzled her greatly. But the girl with the mask liked it. She liked the feeling that the boy Gadreel gave her. It made her feel alive, unlike all the times and days she had spent crying. He made her feel...

 _Wanted_.

Looking at Gadreel and the girl with the mask, one could see quite plainly the differences between them, even from a distance. Gadreel was a youth, full of words and headstrong, while as the girl with the mask, just as youthful as he, was quiet and hesitant, seemingly unsure of the words her mouth spoke when it did. She was into forging small things, mostly with the feathers, bones, and skins that the monsters in the region she stayed most in dropped when they were killed. Gadreel wasn't into that sort of stuff. He wanted to fight those monsters whenever he got bored. He enjoyed reading about the histories of war and such, where as the girl with the mask read little to none.

But they seemed to work, their friendship, however odd it was. And they made each other both happy. So much so, that Gadreel was able to coax the girl with the mask into leaving the region of which she cried in. She was hesitant, at first, but had soon agreed, telling herself that it would be good to leave the area between that place and her cabin every now and then. And Gadreel, being as eager as he was, had tried to grab onto the masked girls hand to pull her away towards the forest she had just agreed to go to.

The masked girl snatched her hand away before his could even skim it. Her green eyes widened to be giant orbs, one floating in beauty, and the other swimming in white. She appeared scared, when Gadreel had tried to grab her hand, and he couldn't understand why.

"What's wrong?" Gadreel asked the girl with the white mask.

She shook her head. "N-nothing. Nothing's wrong. Let's just... get going, yeah?"

He sighed and nodded. "Yeah." He then led her to the forest in silence, curious as to what the look in her eyes was about. Was it because of him? Did she not trust him? He didn't know her name, yet, even after almost two years of knowing the girl with the mask. If that didn't say _'I don't trust you enough_ ', then Gadreel didn't know what _did_.

Eventually, in a heavy, suffocating and black silence, the two made it to the forest province of Camp Phoenix. Gadreel smiled slightly at the sounds and sight. He looked behind him to see the girl with the white mask on half of her face smiling the widest he had ever seen her smile. Her green eyes were closed, and her head was tilted to the side as she listened to the sounds of the forest. Every time she heard the animals call out to each other, her already wide smile would widen ever so slightly more.

Gadreel smiled as he watched her. His hand twitched at his side, tempted to try and take her hand again, to hold it and feel if it was really just as smooth as it looked from where he was standing. He glanced towards her left hand and saw a burn scar halfway up her arm, right before her medium sleeve started. That wouldn't be smooth. He could already tell. But it looked beautiful on her skin, an ugly flaw against the perfect beauty. And it just proved to make her more beautiful in his eyes.

Gadreel took his eyes off the girl with the white mask for a moment to look around for a place to sit. He found a spot on a rock, large enough for both of them to sit on, and he walked over to it. He sat down, watching the girl with the mask for a little while longer. He sighed and slid down the rock till he was sitting on the ground in front of it. The son of Ares leaned back against the rock, stretching his arms above his head as he yawned. He closed his eyes, listening to the small giggles and laughs the girl with the mask made every time a bug or bird flew by or landed on her. Gadreel smiled every time she laughed, and he couldn't hel but to chuckle a couple of the times.

After awhile, Gadreel felt a presence beside him, and he opened up a pale blue eye to look at the person who had just sat down beside him. She gave him a small smile, and he returned it, wishing that the mask wasn't there so he could see her smile radiate on the entirety of her beautiful features. But she never took it off, so he knew that that wouldn't have happened, no matter how much he willed it to be so. They sat in silence for awhile before Gadreel finally spoke.

"How's the fire been treating you?" He asked.

The girl with the mask bit her lip. "Fairly well," she responded. "And camp to you?"

"Pretty decent. The new people are annoying. It seems that yet again, you're the only friend I have this year."

The girl with the mask smiled softly. "I'm okay with that. You're the only friend I've _had_."

Gadreel smiled a little. "Then I'm proud to be so."

The two sat in silence for a little longer, the girl with the mask unaware of the silent battle that Gadreel was having in his mind currently. He kept sending nervous glances at the girl, but she wasn't aware of them as she continued to gaze out around the forest. But finally, making up his mind, Gadreel leaned forward and pressed his lips to the girl with the white masks'.

Only, there were no lips for him to meet. Only emptiness. Gadreel frowned slightly, and opened his eyes, He saw the girl, her green eyes even wider than they had been before. He bit his lip, hesitating and trying to reach for her hand once more. She appeared too scared to notice, and he touched her hand.

And yet, he didn't. His own hand went right through the girl with the masks' hand, confusing the son of Ares. He tried to take her hand again, swearing his depth perception must have been off for awhile, but still he couldn't grab it.

"Wh-what's going on?" Gadreel asked the girl with the mask.

He saw tears spring up in her eyes, and she looked away. Gadreel tried taking her hand once more to try and comfort her so she wouldn't cry, but once more he couldn't grab it, and she started to cry harder than she had ever cried before. She brought up her hands, holding them to her chest, and she stared at them, crying, bawling in a pain Gadreel couldn't understand.

Being as stubborn as he was, Gadreel wouldn't give up on making physical contact with the girl. He reached his arms up and tried hugging her, but the only physical contact he made was with himself, confusing him even more and making the girl with the mask cry even harder.

" _Please_ tell me what's going on." Gadreel begged desperately, wanting to know why he couldn't touch her.

The girl turned her wide green eyes to him, still crying. She lifted a hand and pulled off her white mask, and Gadreel stared at what had been hidden beneath it.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not the other half of her face like he had thought, but a mangled bit of flesh, burnt beyond recognition, white bone underneath it.

"I-I'm sorry, Gadreel," the girl with only half a face cried. "I-I wanted to tell you, b-b-but I didn't know how you w-would take it." She sobbed and shook her head, lifting a hand to return her mask to her face.

Gadreel reached out in an attempt to stop her hand from reaching her face, but hers just passed straight through his. But the girl with half a face got the message, and she stopped, giving him a confused look. The son of Ares analyzed her face for awhile, trying to imagine what she would have looked like with a full face.

"When?" He asked. "When did you die?"

She sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "Seven years ago." She chocked out.

Gadreel was saddened by that. Seven years? "You... you've been a... a..."

"Phantom," the girl said. She gestured to the mask.

Gadreel nodded. "Right... Right... A phantom... for... seven years?"

She nodded, holding back more of her tears.

"Could I... Could I know your name?"

"I don't know what it is," the girl with the mask cried. "It's in the mask, but every time I read it, I forget it."

Gadreel bit his lip. "Well, I don't think I need your name to know that... that I love you." She let in a sharp intake of air at what he just said, but Gadreel didn't care. He continued. "I don't care if you're dead, undead, or alive. I... I love you. That's all I care about. And this is _so_ difficult for me to say, because I'm not used to using words like this and-"

The girl with half the face smiled softly and nodded, wiping at her eyes. "I-I know. I know... And... If I was still alive, I would have been so happy that you had tried to kiss me, because I've found myself falling in love with you, too." She tried grabbing his hand as well, but it passed right through it. She tried not to cry again when it did that. She held out her mask to Gadreel, and he hesitantly took it up in both hands, surprised to find that he cold touch it.

Gadreel gazed at the mask and ran a hand over it's smooth face before he turned it over. He saw a name etched in black on the back of it, and he read it. "A... ski...ra...? Askira...? Askira. That's your name, isn't it? Your names-" He looked up to the girl with only half a face, but she wasn't there anymore. He glanced at the mask again, and bit back his tears, remembering something the camp directior had once told the camp about phantoms.

 _He who sees behind the mask is the one who is able to release them_.

A cruel joke for the son of Ares, and he no longer wanted to see behind the mask.


End file.
